The Practical Guide To Self Confidence

Today I’m going to pop in and chat with you about confidence. To be quite frank, I’m not the poster child for confidence. I have many days myself where I want to wear a garbage bag and destroy every mirror in the house. But, I think we all do, right?

This post isn’t going to “flip-a-switch” and make you go from loathing to loving yourself.

Take note: this is a practical guide.

I’m going to show you practical ways that will hopefully give you little boosts of confidence. At the end of the day, we’re all amazing, beautiful, and one in 7 billion.

Notice Your Strengths

This can be very hard; especially if you’re someone who picks apart everything they ever thought of doing. A strength is a strength no matter how small. If you are a thorough cleaner or are really good at remembering peoples’ names, give yourself a pat on the back. As you start to recognize things you do right instead of things you do wrong, you’ll start to see that you’re not bad at this whole ‘life’ thing after all.

Fashion

This may or may not be for you, but I thought I’d add it to the list. I know if I’m feeling down about myself and I put on a nice dress or pair of heels, I get an instant boost. I immediately feel more confident! The sound heels make when they hit the floor let people know you’re coming through!

Accept A Complement

This is something I used to be horrible at. Whenever someone would give me a compliment, I’d instantly downplay it with, “Oh, my friend can do it much better” or “You’re just saying that to be nice.” When I really should have been thanking them for their kind words. More likely than not, people aren’t going to compliment you out of the clear blue unless they mean it. So, the next time you get a compliment, give thanks not back-talk.

#Boss Playlist

We all have those songs we blast when we’re home alone. Whether it’s Backstreet Boys or T-Swift, if it makes you feel like you’re the star of a music video, listen to it! Music has so many benefits and lifting mood/confidence levels is one among many. Make a playlist of your favorite, confidence boosting songs so the whenever you’re feeling down about yourself you can hit the shuffle button and kiss the bad vibes goodbye.

Everyday Will Not Be Perfect

Bad times truly make the good times better. Sometimes I’ll have back-to-back confident days and then I’ll wake up feeling not so confident. I used to feel like I had failed; I thought I had to be confident 24/7. Not! Being confident is something that takes practice, but it also varies like the weather. Ideally, everyone should feel good about themselves every day, but in today’s world, that’s not realistic. We need to love ourselves no matter what, but not beat ourselves up if we don’t feel 100 all the time.

Embrace Your Perfect Imperfections

In my opinion, the key to confidence is learning to accept the things that made you feel unconfident in the first place. For me, I always worried about my stretch marks or the scars I’ve collected over the years. Now I’m learning that they are part of what makes me, me! They may not be seen on the cover of airbrushed magazines, but they’re seen on billions of people all over the world. I hope that in my lifetime I’ll see people be portrayed more authentically in the media. Most celebrities look different in person than they do on the cover of the top fashion magazines. We as everyday people forget that and feel like we just cannot compete. The truth is we’re all people; no one is greater than the other.

That’s all for today’s post! I hope you guys enjoyed it and maybe it gave you a little more perspective on the world of confidence. ❤

Brilliant post Edye, thank you. Everything you listed is so apt.
To look good, boosts my confidence.
I struggle with self confidence. With regards to accepting compliments, that is something I only recently have been able to embrace, and even then I have my days where I battle and I have to remind myself, just to say Thank You.
Thanks again Edye, Hope you have a fabulous week ❤

This resonates with me so much, Edye! I’m also not a shining example of self confidence, but I try to embrace my physical and “emotional” imperfections and also my strengths as best as possible. I find that writing an “emotion journal” also helps with reflecting upon insecurities and in turn reduce them. Writing down how lousy or irrelevant you feel in a certain situation or on a certain day (and perhaps flipping through your journal to see your ups and downs) helps to put things into perspective, at least for me! 🙂

I’m so glad this post was relatable, Maisy! Journaling is an amazing way to keep track of what we’re feeling. Also, like you said, it’s a great way to keep things in perspective. I’m so glad you stopped by my blog today! I hope you’ll come back by soon ❤